Mark Pope provides injury updates for UK basketball after an upset win at Tennessee
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Game day: No. 12 Kentucky 78, No. 8 Tennessee 73
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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It took a total team effort for Mark Pope’s Kentucky basketball squad to score an important road win Tuesday night at Tennessee.
The Wildcats were effectively down two starters — point guard Lamont Butler and forward Andrew Carr — and remained without top backup point guard Kerr Kriisa for what became a 78-73 victory over the eighth-ranked Volunteers.
No. 12 Kentucky, now 15-5 overall and 4-3 in SEC play, snapped a brief two-game losing streak with the victory, which came amid plenty of injury adversity.
There’s no nights off in the SEC, though, and UK will only have a few days to heal up before an emotional Saturday night contest at Rupp Arena against former coach John Calipari and Arkansas (12-8, 1-6).
Following the upset win over Tennessee, UK coach Mark Pope provided some insight on the ongoing injury woes for his team.
Let’s take a player-by-player look at each of the injured Wildcats.
Kentucky’s Lamont Butler missed the Tennessee game
The biggest news to emerge from Monday night’s SEC injury report for UK before the Tennessee game was that Butler — the fifth-year guard who previously played four seasons at San Diego State — would be out for Kentucky. This marked the third missed game of the season for Butler due to injury. In December, Butler missed two games with a sprained ankle. Earlier this month, Butler hurt his left shoulder but hadn’t missed a game following that injury until Tuesday.
Curiously enough, UK is 3-0 in the games that Butler has missed.
Still, it goes without saying that Kentucky wants Butler on the floor. He’s averaging 13.2 points, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 51.3% from the field and 40% from 3-point range.
On Tuesday night, Pope gave a coy response when asked by the Herald-Leader about Butler’s injury status.
“There’s multiple factors in it. Some will get better, and others we’ll see,” Pope said. “I’m an eternal optimist … Lamont is the heart and soul of this team. If and when we get him back, we’re going to be elated. We certainly need him and in the meantime, guys are going to step up and compete and fight.”
That’s exactly what happened against Tennessee. Kentucky used a variety of options — from traditional guards like Jaxson Robinson and Otega Oweh to big man Amari Williams — at point guard to cobble together a top-10 road win.
“I just had to make sure I went out there and just stayed aggressive,” Robinson said after scoring 17 points and knocking down four 3-pointers against the Volunteers. “Just took the shots that I felt were open. Yeah, just staying aggressive for my team. That’s really it.”
“Just staying confident in ourselves and knowing we can compete with anybody in the country,” Robinson added about UK’s mentality when playing without Butler and Carr.
Andrew Carr played less than two minutes vs. Tennessee
Carr — the fifth-year forward who previously spent two seasons each at Delaware and Wake Forest — was listed as “questionable” to play against Tennessee on Monday night’s injury report, before being removed from the report Tuesday. That move indicated that Carr, who has been dealing with a lingering back injury, would play against the Volunteers. Carr missed his first game of the season for UK on Saturday, as he didn’t suit up for the Cats in a road loss at Vanderbilt.
While Carr did play against Tennessee, he didn’t play for long. Carr — who had started all 18 of the previous games he had played for UK this season — began on the bench against the Volunteers, and he didn’t check into the game until the 15:19 mark of the first half. Carr played 1:29 of game time — with a turnover as his only counting statistic — before returning to the bench for good.
Effectively, this meant Kentucky dealt Tennessee its first home loss of the season without a pair of starters (Butler and Carr).
On UK’s pregame radio show Tuesday, Pope made it clear he wanted to make sure Carr — who averages 10.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 minutes — came out of the Tennessee game without aggravating his back injury.
“We’re going to really, really monitor his minutes,” Pope said on UK radio. “Winning is the No. 1 priority, and then number ‘1A’ is can we get him through this night without having a major setback. That’s weighing heavy on my heart.”
After the win, Pope pointed to that exact outcome.
“We dearly miss Andrew Carr. One of the best things is that we got through the night without him having a setback,” Pope said. “It was probably too early … Maybe too early (for Carr to return). I’m glad we get a couple more days — he hasn’t really practiced — when he can actually be on the practice floor.”
Pope has previously said that Carr was on a no-practice schedule in recent weeks to allow him to play in games.
“We’re really fortunate to have some really good players that haven’t played a ton that we need right now,” Pope said when discussing the recent playing time given to freshman forward Trent Noah with Carr sidelined. “And they’re showing up.”
“Everyone stepped up tonight,” added Williams, who posted a double-double with 10 points and a season-best 15 rebounds.
Kentucky basketball still has no timetable for Kerr Kriisa return
It’s become expected at this point for Kentucky to be without Kriisa, the fifth-year guard from Estonia who previously played at Arizona and West Virginia.
Kriisa suffered a foot injury Dec. 7 during UK’s overtime win over Gonzaga in Seattle, and he hasn’t played since. The day after that game, Kentucky announced that Kriisa’s injury required surgery.
Now, Kriisa is well beyond the initial six-week time frame that Pope mentioned as an estimate for his return.
While Kriisa has been seen going through light, unstructured shooting drills at Rupp Arena prior to recent UK games, there is no timetable for when Kriisa could return to game action.
Last week on his weekly radio show, Pope described Kriisa’s injury recovery so far as “completely predictable and scripted.”
“We’re going to know more in the next few weeks about whether this is going to kind of turn the corner and be on the quicker side or if this is going to be a complicated recovery,” Pope said of Kriisa, who is averaging 3.8 assists in 17.3 minutes played per game. “So we’re kind of moving into that window where we’re going to get some more information on his recovery.”
Further updates to come on Butler and Carr’s injuries
The good news for Kentucky fans is they won’t have to wait long to get further updates on the statuses of Butler, Carr, Kriisa and any other Wildcats who are at less than 100% health-wise.
Pope will host his weekly radio show Wednesday night, before meeting with reporters in Lexington for his weekly press conference Thursday afternoon.
Then, on Friday night, the SEC injury report will come out for both UK and Arkansas ahead of their highly anticipated Saturday night game at Rupp Arena.
One player who is certain to be on that injury report — along with Kriisa — is Arkansas freshman guard Boogie Fland. A former Calipari recruit at UK, Fland — who is averaging 15.1 points, 5.7 assists and 1.5 steals this season — had surgery earlier this month to address a right thumb injury. Fland is likely out for the rest of the season.
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 4:30 AM.
